


Across the Breach

by Stressball



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Original Character-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2019-10-31 03:51:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17841923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stressball/pseuds/Stressball
Summary: Wari is a human girl who lives on the eastern edge of Katolis. Despite being warned her whole life to stay away from the breach, her curiosity gets the better of her, and she begins a life-long companionship with the elf just across the border.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just doing this for fun, and hopefully to improve my writing skills. This is a fluffy story about two kids forming a friendship despite being forced apart by the prejudice they grew up with and a literal river of lava. Have fun!

Mother always warned me about elves

'bloodthirsty, horrid creatures' she'd call them, and I had no reason to doubt her. 'Eat all your food or the elves will get you' 'come inside before the elves come' 'elves eat naughty children who don't listen to their parents', these were the things said to me in my youth, and in my childish imagination I saw elves as dreadful boogeymen, with glowing red eyes and sharp teeth. One phrase my mother and father were sure to drill into my skull was 'don't go near the breach'. Every child who lived in our village heard this, being nearly three miles from the border. Every time I went out to play in the neighboring woods, my mother would call out her warning, and I would roll my eyes. Why would she feel so insistent on telling me not to do something I never had any intention of doing? Wild horses couldn't get me to go near that terrifying, elf-ridden place. My childhood was lived out like this, with free reign to explore the wonders of the world around me, as long as I came home before sunset, and I stayed away from the border. It was a carefree existence, and one that I treasured.

The first time I saw the breach, it was an accident. It was a plentiful summer, and I grew bold, exploring farther and farther into the woods I called home. I followed a new deer trail, unaware that in my concentration I had turned from going north to east. The trees thinned out, and I noticed the temperature was unbearably hot, even in the shade. I wiped sweat off my forehead, and looking up, there it was. Stories could never do it justice. The river of glowing orange and yellow rock flowed as far as I could see in either direction. Beyond it, I could see fertile green forests, not unlike the very one I had just crawled out of. Just looking at the elven side of the border felt so taboo I immediately averted my eyes, mother's warnings ringing through my head. I bolted back the way I came, fearing that my mother would somehow know I broke her most important rule if I stayed even one more second. I returned home without incident, hurriedly wiping fearful tears from my eyes, and after eating dinner and settling off to bed, I felt I was in the clear. That night I swore I would never tell a soul, but it wasn't two days later that I was boasting to every child in the village about my daring expedition. They oohed and awed at my slightly embellished tale, and for that day I felt like a queen among the village. Even as I thanked my lucky stars for seeing the breach and coming out alive, I couldn't stop thinking about that gorgeous Xadian forest, so similar to my own.

The second time I saw the breach, it was on purpose. Throughout the fall and winter, my mother had been getting larger, and she told me I would have a new baby sibling. I did not want a new baby sibling. I had heard from the other children in the village that siblings are horrible. Fjord complained that his sister always wanted to hang around him, and he couldn't do anything fun anymore. Mika said that his brother cried all the time, and woke him up every night. Gina said her parents paid her far less attention ever since her new sister was born. I feared all of this and more. I couldn't understand why my parents would want a new child. Was I not enough? Have they grown tired of me? I was barely eight, and my parents were ready to abandon me. It was devastating. When the snow melted away and spring began, my mother went into labor. I was cast aside to let the midwife do her job, and I stormed off into the woods, acting as if that was what I wanted to do all along. For the first time in my young life, I was feeling well and truly rebellious. I followed the same trail, now more worn from months of use, and cast my apprehensions aside in favor of youthful fury. Much faster than the last time I came, I reached the border. This time, I carefully went down the rocky slope to reside along the banks of the lava river. It was hot, but not as hot as it was last summer. I was content to watch the lava flow and mourn my forgotten state for the rest of eternity. I sniffled, and wiped tears and snot from my face with the sleeves of old coat. I calmed down, and laid back on the rocks, dozing by the most dangerous place my parents had ever warned me about.

I woke up when a shadow passed over me, blocking the sun. I blinked sleepily, still dazed from my impromptu nap, and it took me a moment to realize what it was. When I did, I swear my heart stopped.

_Thunder._

I knew the fearsome dragon king guarded the breach, but until that moment he was no more real to me than the tales my mother used to tell at my bedside. He was big. Really big. Big, and blue, and _mean_.

_I'm going to die._

I was too paralyzed to move. Why, oh why didn't I head my parents' warnings? Would anyone mourn poor, stupid Wari? For a moment it seemed that the mighty dragon was looking right at me, staring into my very soul. And then he turned away, and kept flying. I released the breath I didn't know I was holding. He didn't see me after all. I was so relieved I laughed, tears of unknown origin coming to my eyes. In hindsight, it was a rather traumatizing moment for a ten-year-old. Life had been put into perspective, I was ready to come home that instant and apologize dearly to my mother and father, ready to hold my new baby sibling, ready to never visit this stupid breach again. I stood and stretched, nearly dancing a jig, I was so happy. Just as I was ready to turn around and go home, I noticed her. The music swelling in my heart came to a hard stop. It was an elf, barely twenty feet away, staring at me from across the river of molten rock. _Oh come on_ , wasn't one near death experience enough for one day? For a while, neither of us moved, both unwilling to make the first move. I took a tentative step backward, then another, and suddenly I turned, scrambling up the rocks with the desperation of a rabbit chased by dogs. I didn't look back until I was nearly home, terrified that I would see sharp-toothed elves chasing me.

"Wari? Wari!" My father called from the door of my welcoming home. I nearly wept with joy.

"Daddy!" I cried, leaping into his arms. "Is Momma done getting the new baby?" He smiled at me, and my fears melted away.

"Yeah, do you want to see your new baby brother?" I nodded enthusiastically, and he laughed. "You have to be really careful, Mommy's tired, and newborns are fragile." I told him that I would be extra careful, and he took me inside to meet my new brother Jamie.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I say I write for fun but what I really mean is I cry inconsolably onto a page and slap a few words together as an afterthought

Things were good, for a time. My brother Jamie grew healthy and strong, and I spent the summer laughing and playing, as it should be for a young child. Crops were good, but winter came early, and hard. A dreadful illness swept through our village, killing seven people, my mother among them. It took only two weeks to turn my mother from a strong, renowned healer of the village, to a corpse. All her years spent learning how to keep people from dying, only to die of a cough. It was maddeningly unfair. The funeral was a quick, somber affair, and my father held my wailing brother in one arm and my hand in the other as my mother’s heavy casket was laid into the ground. We didn’t talk much, after that. My father withdrew into himself, barely able to take care of himself, much less two children. It was hard, as the winter grew ever colder.

In the deepest, darkest part of the winter, my father left with a few other members of our village to get supplies from a neighboring town. With just me and Jamie, I was sure we would die before he returned. No amount of fire and blankets could keep the chill from getting to us. Within three days we ran out of firewood, and I knew I had to do something. Jamie wasn’t even a year old, and I knew every freezing night brought the possibility of tragedy. I curled around him as we slept, desperately trying to keep him warm. But there was one place I knew that was never cold.

It was a stupid idea. The sight of the dragon king still burned behind my eyelids every time I slept. I did not know if he would tolerate my presence on the border a second time. But I also knew if I did nothing, Jamie would die. Resolute, I packed our meager rations in a sack, and wrapped blankets around my brother. Amid piles of snow I set out once again towards the breach.

It was a lot harder the third time around. Snow covered the path, and fatigue clouded my mind. Several times I had to backtrack and find a new way to pass large snow drifts. Thick flakes swirled around me, drifting down to join their fellows around my feet. I trudged on, lungs burning from the cold air. The snow thickened, and the wind pushed against me. Eventually just putting one foot in front of the other became a chore. I knew if I stopped I wouldn’t be able to get up again, so I gave all my attention to my sluggishly moving feet. I barely noticed the temperature until the snow parsed out to bare rock under me. I nearly wept with joy. Suddenly I noticed how much my legs hurt, and by the time I reached the ledge I all but collapsed down the rocks, shielding my brother but collecting more than a few scrapes and bruises.

I was weary, and every inch of my body hurt like I had lost a fight with a dragon, but it was all worth it. I was warm. I felt like I could lay on those rocks forever. The almighty king of the dragons could come step on me and I wouldn’t even care. When I had caught my breath and could sit up, I got out my pack and sighed at the small amount of food I had. At least we would survive the night, if maybe not the next few days. Despite the bleak circumstances, I was optimistic. My father would return in two days time, and he would be able to take care of us. All I had to do was last until then.

“Isn’t that right, Jamie?” My sleeping brother didn’t answer me, but I was undeterred. “We’re gonna be fine.” The sun set behind us as I looked at the Xadian side of the border. The bright green forest I remembered was now covered in sparkling snow. I wondered if the elves were warm over there. Did they get cold? Were they worried about surviving the winter? The thought had never occured to me before. I settled in my coat, watching the full moon climb into the sky. It wasn’t too scary, being twenty feet away from the monsters of my childhood. They couldn’t cross the border anymore than I could. And even if they were mad about me being so close, I would rather die warm at the hands of bloodsucking elves than freezing to death trying to get back home in the middle of the night. Decision made, I stretched, ignored Jamie drooling on my shirt, and let the stars lull me to sleep.

“What are you doing here?” If I was the type to spring up after being woken suddenly, I would have catapulted my brother into a river of lava, and wouldn’t that be an awkward conversation to have with my dad? As it was I just stared in abject terror at the pale face filling my vision above me. She blinked, I blinked, and we sat there in absolute silence for three seconds. Then Jamie woke up. And began to cry. Loudly. I still didn’t move, despite the wriggling baby on my chest. “. . . Are you going to take care of your child?”

“He’s my brother,” I said. “I’m ten.” That was not the biggest problem of this discussion, but I was strangely affronted by the idea of an elf girl thinking Jamie was mine.

“Fine. Are you going to take care of your brother?” Now that we were face to face, I could see that the elf was young, maybe even younger than me, and less murder-y than I imagined. She had wide violet eyes, and purple markings (tattoos? birthmarks?) on her face. Not taking my eyes off of her, I grabbed my brother and tried to comfort him. He would not be comforted. As I struggled to shut him up, the elf watched me. “What’s your name?”

“What’s yours?” I retorted, not trusting her to not suddenly attack me.

“Aisling,” She said so promptly I startled. “What’s yours?”

“. . . Wari.” I still didn’t trust her, but it was only fair. I stood up with my brother, realizing that I stood a few inches above her, level with her stubby horns. “This is Jamie.”

“Jamie looks hungry,” She commented, trying to get a look at him as I yanked him back.

“He probably is,” I growled. Any intimidation I could have gained was underscored by my stomach deciding to join the conversation.

“Do humans not feed their children?”

“Of course they do! Humans aren't-” I was going to say ‘elves’ but considered my words at the last minute. Just because she didn't look dangerous didn't mean she wasn't. “It's just a hard winter.” Aisling considered me a moment, then got up.

“Wait here,” She said, bounding off into the shadows.

“Hey, wait!” I cried, but she was gone. I thought about going after her, but if there was anything my childhood taught me it was that following strange elves was going to get you killed. So I waited, a bit bitter, until I saw Aisling waving at me from the other side of the border.

“What-? How did you-!” The tiny figure of Aisling shook her head, and shouted something back that I could barely hear. “What?! Ugh-” I gave up, just waving at the elf. Aisling moved back out of my sight, and I shook my head. Stupid elves. She was probably going to get a pack of her fellows to kill me and my brother. Oh well. It's not like I could do anything at this point. I looked at my brother, sleeping in my arms, and hoped we would live to see our father again.

“Hey!” I startled awake once more, groaning. “Oh, you're back.” I stretched out my limbs, standing up on weak legs. My stomach reminded me insistently that I needed food.

“Here,” She held out a handful of blueish white roots. “Snow root!”

“. . . Snow root?” I moved my brother to one arm, and took one of the offered tubers.

“My mom taught me to find food everywhere, even in Winter,” Aisling said proudly. “They're very nutritious.”

“. . . Well, I guess,” I carefully moved the root to my mouth, and chomped down. “It tastes like dirt.”

“It tastes like food.” As much as I didn't want to admit it, my stomach was singing with the addition of anything to its empty walls. I tried not to moan. Without a thought I inhaled nearly all of them, stopping when they were nearly gone.

“What about Jamie?” Aisling reached back in her pocket, and pulled out a bottle of red juice.

“Here.” I inspected it closely.

“It isn't blood, isn't it?” Aisling gave me an incredulous look.

“Of course it's not _blood_ ,” She said. “It's moonberry juice.” Unconvinced, I tasted the drink. It was sweet, and probably not blood, so I carefully fed it to Jamie. He drank greedily and I inspected the elf.

“. . . You aren’t like the elves in the stories,” I said, watching as she yawned, revealing blunt, normal looking teeth.

“Well, you aren’t like the humans I’ve heard of,” She countered, cocking her head. We circled each other, curiosity overruling any lingering fear. She was a lot like me, in the end. Even with four fingers on each hand, and those strange markings, and small, curved horns, she basically looked human.

“I guess, maybe elves aren’t so scary after all.” I reached my conclusion with a firm nod, putting my hand out to greet the elf properly. “I’m Wari.” She blinked at me.

“You told me your name.” I shook my head.

“Yeah but this is official. My-my mom used to say you didn’t really meet someone until you’ve shaken their hand.” She was still confused, but she took my hand.

“I’m . . . Aisling?” I nodded, and shook her hand up and down. She then took Jamie’s hand. “I’m Aisling.” I smiled at her.

“I guess it’s nice to meet you.” She smiled back at me, then looked at the sky and gasped.

“The moon’s nearly set! Sorry Wari, I have to go-” She scrambled off, waving a hurried farewell behind her. “It was nice to meet you!”

I stared at her as she went, filled with questions and worries. I met an elf that day. And she didn't even eat me.


	3. Chapter 3

Against my better judgement, I didn’t immediately go home after the elf left. I had a few reasons for doing this.

1) My father certainly hadn’t returned with necessary supplies yet

2) The Breach was warm and no one had tried to kill us for being so close

3) Aisling might come back

The last point was rather troubling. I should be concerned that the elf might return, bringing with her more elves to kill and eat me and Jamie. But Aisling never gave me any indication that she wanted to kill us, or eat us. She was . . . nice. She brought us food, even though she didn’t have to. I was conflicted. Everything I heard from my parents and teachers just didn’t add up with the cheerful, kind elf I had just met. She could have been lying, trying to get my guard down, but somehow I couldn’t believe that.  
So I waited. The winter sun rose, and I collected snow in my bag to melt and drink by the lava flow. That, with the last of the roots left by Aisling, was my breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sometime around noon, Jamie woke up, and began to cry loudly. I wanted to cry too. I was hungry, and miserable, and I had to be strong for my baby brother, who didn’t know why his mother wasn’t here to feed him. I tried to sleep as the sun got lower in the sky, already tired from a lack of food and staying up most of the night. I dozed off as the moon crawled up over Xadia, illuminating the snowy landscape.

“You sure do spend a lot of time sleeping,” A voice said, pulling me from a deeper sleep than I expected.

“Humans like to sleep during the night,” I retorted, pulling myself to my feet. I stumbled for a moment, remembering the ache from my empty stomach.

“Not this one,” Aisling said, holding out my brother.

“What-!” I snatched him away from her. “When did you grab Jamie?”

“He was crawling away when I got here,” She shrugged. “Anyway, I brought you something.” She took a pack off her shoulders, and opened it to reveal a banquet of dried fruit, nuts, and roots.

“You . . .” I struggled to put words together. “You’re really giving this to me?”

“Of course!” she said brightly, handing me another bottle of juice. “My parents said to always share what you have.”

I thought of elves with red eyes and sharp teeth, vicious and bloodthirsty, teaching their children to be kind and compassionate. It just didn’t work.

“Are you sure you don’t drink blood?” I asked tentatively. She gave me a look.

“I am very sure.”

“Not even a little bit?”

“Not even a little bit.”

I sat down on a rock, looking at the lava, and the forests behind it.

“I guess . . . I guess my parents were wrong.” It was an earth-shattering statement. I felt like my world was breaking apart around me, because an elf girl was sharing her food with me.

“Would you sell your brother for a bit of gold?” The question was so out of the blue, I spun around to face her.

“No!” I clutched Jamie to my chest. “Why would you even think that?”

“‘Cuz that’s what my parents said humans are like.” We stared at each other for a very long time, as if we could find the answers we were looking for in each other’s eyes.

“Why would they tell us that?” I said quietly.

“. . . I don’t know.” Aisling looked at me, then up at the sky.

“Do you have to leave?” I asked, suddenly not wanting to be alone. She nodded her head, and I sighed. “I won’t be here tomorrow. I have to go home.”

She considered me for a moment. “Can you meet me here in a few weeks? On the next full moon?”

If my dad knew I was even speaking to an elf, he would lock me in the house until I was an adult. If he knew I was thinking of meeting her again, he would lock me in the house until I was his age.

But he didn’t know that elves were different. That they didn’t eat children, or drink blood, apparently. That they shared what they had with people in need.

“I’ll be there.” she smiled at me, and I smiled at her, and I couldn’t help but feel like something very important had just happened. She sped off, and I watched her go, off behind crags of rock and streams of lava, to somehow get back to Xadia.

Too wired to sleep, I headed back home as soon as the sun breached the horizon, trampling through snow and bushes to meet my father at the entrance to the town.

Every other able-bodied person in the village was waiting there by the time I arrived. It felt like much longer than a few days since I had last been there. The worst of the winter seemed over, and the sun shone brightly on the gathered crowd. I pushed through with a baby in my arms and a half-empty pack of food on my back, finally settling next to a somber-looking Fjord. He was alone, his sister and parents all taken by the chill. I knew his life and the lives of the relatives he was living with depended on this expedition.

Still, the sun climbed higher into the sky, and began its descent, the road ahead as empty as ever. People began to mutter amongst themselves. Had something gone wrong? What will we do if they don’t come back? Fjord gripped my arm, and I let him, eyes willing to see past the trees and snow. Neither of us said anything, not even Jamie, sleeping in my arms.

Wait . . .

There!

A whoop traveled through the crowd, as we saw a group of people coming over the snowy hills.

“Dad!” I rushed forward, along with half the village, to meet the approaching group. As I saw him come into view, I felt like the last few days didn’t even matter. He was walking alongside a cart full of supplies, and his eyes lit up when he saw us.

“Wari, Jamie,” Nothing feels better than being pulled into a hug by my dad. “Honey are you okay?” I realized that I had started crying into his jacket. In my defense, it had been a stressful few days.

“I’m just glad you’re back,” I mumbled. Victorious, we came into town, and I helped him distribute food, medicine, and other supplies to the townsfolk until the moon was high once more. Eventually, we waved goodbye to the others, and he picked up Jamie to go back home, trailing a handcart full of chopped wood. The relief of having everything back to normal almost made me forget about what Aisling said. Almost.

“Dad?” I said when we were home, snuggled in blankets by a warm hearth.

“Yeah honey?”

“Are . . . are all elves evil?” He looked at me, and I looked at the fire.

“What makes you ask that?”

“I just . . .” I thought about kind elf girls. “You were gone and I . . .”

“Oh Wari,” He picked me up into his lap. “Elves can’t cross the border. You have nothing to worry about.” That didn’t answer my question, but it didn’t matter. Because one elf, at least, _could_ cross the border. And one elf, at least, _wasn’t_ evil. I looked up at him, searching for answers I knew I wouldn’t find. I pushed thoughts of elves out of my head, and focused on what mattered. My dad. Jamie. We were together, and everything was going to be fine.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not featured in this chapter - Aisling  
> sorry

Somehow, we survived the winter. The worst of the chill had passed, and the lingering snow began to slowly melt away under the warm gaze of the sun. Father never suspected that I was anywhere but home during his absence.

For the first time in my life, I was truly at odds with my father, though he didn’t know it. I knew he couldn’t understand my conflicting feelings towards elves. He wasn’t there, to see Aisling share what she had to help two starving strangers. He couldn’t understand that I needed to  _ know _ .

A week had passed since the return of the expedition, and I had two and a half weeks to go before the next full moon. The childish part of me wanted to see Aisling again. She was nice, and she was interesting. I got along with the other children of the village, but I was never anyone’s best friend. I wasn’t sure, but I thought Aisling was my friend. The wiser part of me, more cautious than any eleven year-old had any right to be, reminded me of everything my elders taught about elves. Just because Aisling didn’t look dangerous didn’t mean she wasn’t.

_ Shut up, _ I told the wiser part of me.

There were a few places in town that could give me an unbiased opinion on elves, but my best bet for information was the local bookshop. I was passably literate, but I had never found reason to enter the musty old shop by the baker’s until that moment.

I had never seen so many books in my entire life.

Wall to wall, filling every shelf and piled on tables were books. I was dumbfounded with the sheer amount of knowledge that surrounded me. Just browsing the titles I could see books on history, books on politics, books on farming and cooking and sewing and a million other things.

“Oh, hello there!” A voice came from around a particularly perilous pile of prose.

Gus, the owner of the shop, was widely regarded as eccentric at best, crazy at worst. According to Mika’s mom, he barely got by on bookselling proceeds and the generosity of the town. Regardless, he was a jovial fellow, and well-liked despite his eccentricities. 

“Hi,” I said, a bit intimidated by his large girth and larger personality. 

“You looking for anything in particular?” He asked, looking over the books I was inspecting.

I started to shake my head, but an idea came to me.

“Magic,” I said, thinking myself clever. “I’m looking for books on magic.” Elves, I knew, used magic. Maybe that was how Aisling managed to cross the breach. I knew I would draw suspicion by actively searching for information on elves, but I had to start somewhere.

Gus  _ hmmed  _ thoughtfully, then reached up to a shelf high above my head.

“Try this one on for size.  _ Magic for Beginners _ .”

Sounds about right.

I flipped through the book. It was large, but consisted primarily of pictures and large text. 

“Can I look at this for a bit?” 

He smiled and patted my head.

“Go knock yourself out.” 

He cleared a pile of books from a nearby chair (none of which discussed magic or elves) and retreated behind the shelves as I dove into the book.

It had some interesting information on the usage of dark magic in the kingdoms, but the information I was searching for was barely a footnote. Under  _ Primal Magic  _ I found a single sentence pertaining to elves.

_ In Xadia, the six races of elves correspond to each primal source. _

There were no pictures of elves, no description of the six races. Despite being functionally useless, I found myself absorbed in the book nonetheless. I had no idea there was more than one way to practice magic, and I almost forgot my objective in my fascination. 

“I hate to interrupt a good book, but isn’t it time you should be heading home?”

I looked up, and realized the sun had nearly set.

“Oh-I’m so sorry-” I blushed furiously. “I had no idea it had gotten so late-”

“It’s alright,” The bookseller said. “Just run along home now.”

I placed the book atop a nearby pile and said a quick thank you as I sped out of the shop, nearly crashing into a group returning home in my haste. Without pausing to call out an apology, I ran off. There really wasn’t any reason to be racing down the roads to my home, but I knew my father would be calling me for dinner soon, and the movement kept the worst of the chill away. The frozen air stung my throat, and I pictured the soup my father would be making, warm and hearty. With the last of the light fading from the sky, I rocketed into the warmth of my home, and the embrace of my father.

“Hi honey,” He set me down beside the fire. “You have a good day?”

“Uh-huh,” I stood on my toes to see into a pot on the counter. “Is dinner ready?”

“Yup, I was just about to call you inside.” He picked up the pot. “Would you move your brother to the table?”

I moved over to Jamie, who was sitting warm by the fire (but not too close). He had just woken up, and was blinking sleepily when I picked him up. We had gotten off to a rocky start (seriously, who knew babies cried  _ all the time _ ), but over the winter I had grown to accept him as a part of my life. With mom gone, our family needed to stick together.

Together, we sat, and ate. Soup is a marvelous thing, and it never failed to warm me to my bones. For a moment, with a crackling fire, and warm food in our bellies, everything was perfect.

“Wari,” My father said, feeding a spoonful to my brother. “The mines are opening again tomorrow, so I’ll be out of the house a lot.”

This was not news to me. For as long as I had been alive, my father had spent a majority of his time working in the mines just outside of town. As my mother had explained to me, he dug for minerals to make money for food and shoes and other things we needed.

“When I’m gone, I need you to look after Jamie.”

This was news to me. I didn’t dislike my brother, but that didn’t mean I wanted to spend the whole day with him.

“But-” I started to object, then realized there weren’t a lot of options. No one else was going to look after him. In lieu of an argument, I glared at my soup.

“I know you want to play with your friends in town, but someone has to take care of your brother,” My father continued. “With your mother gone . . .”

He didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t have to. With the mood soured, I mumbled an acceptance of the order, and got up to clean my dish. In silence, I washed and dried the bowl, then went to my room for the night. 

In the morning, I felt better. We ate breakfast in a more amicable silence, and when my father pulled on his boots and coat, I waved goodbye from the door. Retreating to the warmth, I looked at my brother and sighed.

“Looks like it’s just you and me.”

Undeterred, I packed a small lunch for us, and put Jamie on my back in a sling. I was even more determined to find information about elves, with me still undecided on the whole thing as the full moon edged closer. I collected my carefully saved allowance, and set off for town. This time, as I entered the quaint little bookshop with a baby on my back, I was not the only patron.

“Oh, hello there!” It took me a moment to recognize her as Fjord’s grandmother. “Aren’t you just precious?” 

“Hi Miss Zia,” I said respectfully. “Are you looking for a book too?”

“Oh, I’m just browsing. I was thinking of getting one as a birthday present for Aida.” Aida, I recalled, was Fjord’s cousin, and several years older than me.

“Well, I hope she likes it.” I turned away into the shelves, hoping that she wouldn’t draw me into a long, boring conversation about Aida.

Luckily, she seemed to catch my disinterest, and turned to Gus, who was far more polite than me, and obliged her with a calm patience. I delved deeper into the store, losing sight of them amongst the stacks. The shelves must have had some sort of organizational system, but I couldn’t see it. I picked up books at random, hoping to find some mention of elves, or Xadia. There was a lot of knowledge to be found, but none of it was what I was looking for. As I checked book after book, I grew more and more discouraged. There was nowhere else in town I could find a book on elves. I began to think it was a useless mission.

And then I saw it. Shining like a star amid the piles of books.  _ Elves of Xadia _ . I was almost certain I could hear a choir of angels as I picked up the book. A stylized dragon curled around the title, made of some shimmering material. It was beautiful. I reverently opened it to the front page.

It was full of words. A lot of them. Covering the page with tiny, tiny text. My face fell. As I flipped through the book, I could see almost no pictures, just more of the miniscule font. Valiantly, I squinted my eyes and tried to read it. Unfortunately, the author was rather fond of big words, and I could only understand about every third sentence. I groaned, and pouted at the pretty cover.  _ Why must you do this to me _ ? 

I knew I had to have the book.

Already, I was thinking of the scarce few books we had at home, one of them a dictionary. It would take time, and effort, but I wanted to read this book. Resigned to my decision, I carried  _ Elves of Xadia  _ back to the front of the shop.

Zia and Gus were still talking, and I waited silently for one of them to notice me.

“Oh, hi Wari,” Zia said. “Did you find a book you like?”

I nodded, and placed the book on the counter. “How much does this cost?”

Both of the adults stared at my chosen book.

“Are you sure this is the book you want?” Gus said, looking it over. “It seems a bit . . . advanced.”

“Yup,” I affirmed. “How much?”

He looked at me, then shrugged and gave me the price. As I counted out coins, Zia handed me the book.

“If it’s what you want. Make sure to take care of your father, dear,” She called as I set out for home.

“I will!” I walked this time, more careful with Jamie on my back. 

As we returned, I started a new fire in the hearth, fed my brother, and hid the book between my bed and the wall, covering it with a blanket. Despite the difficulty of the text, I was excited to delve into it. Hopefully, it would have the answers I was looking for, and I could finally decide if I was really going to go meet Aisling on the full moon.


End file.
